Hallie Ford Fellows for 2020 named

June 22, 2020, Roseburg, Oregon: The Ford Family Foundation today named its 2020 Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts, recognizing three Oregon visual artists for demonstrated excellence.

Artists from Chiloquin, Eugene, and Portland honored

A jury of five arts professionals from within and outside of Oregon selected Natalie Ball of Chiloquin, Iván Carmona of Portland, and Donald Morgan of Eugene from a competitive pool of 180 applicants. They will receive a $35,000 unrestricted award and will join 40 of their peers selected over the last 10 years as Hallie Ford Fellows.

“These three artists approach their craft in personal and deeply studied ways,” says Anne Kubisch, president of the Foundation. “Each is masterful, and each contributes to an ever-expanding artistic landscape in this state.”

The jurists individually reviewed and then collectively discussed the applicants. They determined that each awardee demonstrates a mastery of artistic practice that prepares them to step into rigorous and meaningful opportunities in the global contemporary art world.  Serving on the panel were: Roger Hull, professor of art history emeritus, Willamette University; independent arts writer and curator (Salem, Oregon); Jenelle Porter, independent curator (Los Angeles, California); Claire Tancons, independent curator (Berlin, Germany); Kate Wagle, professor emeritus, University of Oregon; artist (Portland, Oregon); and Wallace Whitney, artist, curator, co-founder Canada Gallery (New York, New York). 

The 2020 recipients were selected based on the following criteria:

• Quality of work: Artists exhibit artistic excellence, exemplary talent, and depth of sophisticated exploration.
• Evolution of work: Artists stand at a pivotal point in their practices and would benefit from a Fellowship at this point in their careers. 
• Impact of work: Artists' goals are consistent with Fellowship goals, and they show potential for future accomplishment and capacity to contribute significantly to Oregon's visual arts ecology.

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About the 2020 Hallie Ford Fellows

Natalie Ball

(b. 1980. Lives and works in Chiloquin, Oregon)

“I map personal and historical landscapes allowing them to travel through generations to engage the history of violence, dispossession, and survivance; connecting and filling in gaps and forging stories to hold space for new and complex narratives to exist.” — Natalie Ball

Natalie Ball was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She has a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Ethnic Studies and Art from the University of Oregon. She furthered her education in New Zealand at Massey University where she received a Master of Arts, focusing on Indigenous contemporary art. Ball then relocated to her ancestral homelands in Chilqouin to raise her three children. Natalie attained her Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking at Yale School of Art in 2018. Her work has been shown internationally, including recently with the Half Gallery, New York, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, California; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Gagosian, New York, New York; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France; and SculptureCenter, New York, New York; and locally in the 2019 Biennial, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center. She is the recipient of the 2020 Bonnie Bronson Award, a 2019 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the 2018 Betty Bowen Award (Seattle Art Museum), among other honors. 

“Natalie works in a tradition of West Coast/California Assemblage, reminiscent of the 1970s Los Angeles Funk based free Assemblage,” says Essence Harden, an independent curator. “Through her chosen objects, attributed to indigenous identity, Natalie reassesses indigeneity as a space outside of bounded thinking.”

Iván Carmona

(b. 1973. Lives and works in Portland, Oregon)

“The forms and colors found in my works are based on long-held memories and represent both physical and tactile experiences. Each piece represents a fragment of those experiences through landscape.” — Iván Carmona

Iván Carmona’s hands helped his father tend to a family home in Puerto Rico. The coarse finish of cement is coded to his personal history, as are the rich pastels and modernist lines that distinguish Puerto Rican architecture. Already a successful ceramicist, Carmona made the move to Portland to study more deeply, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2015, where he also assisted many artists in the studio and as an instructor. Carmona’s work has recently been exhibited locally by Eutectic Gallery and Ash Street Project, and is held in the collections of King County, Washington; Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Santurce, Puerto Rico; and Gifu Prefecture Tokyo Kouryu High School, Japan. He is represented by PDX CONTEMPORARY ART.

“I love watching Iván work. He moves in silence with a reassuring calm and measured pace,” says artist Jeffry Mitchell. “Iván’s forms are built with the most basic techniques: pinch coil and slab. They have a solid classicism, harmony and balance. Working side by side with him reminds me of the times I worked next to Akio Takamori — not a lot of grunting or groaning, no Sturm und Drang, straight forward work that resulted, almost miraculously, in the most astonishing forms.”

Donald Morgan

(b. 1969. Lives and works in Eugene, Oregon)

“My work touches on mortality, magic, superstition, humor, the mythology of the American West, and literature. This last category connects much of my practice.”  — Donald Morgan

Donald Morgan’s work is deceivingly complex. Impeccably built and finished sculptures pose a compendium of questions and narratives in conversation with texts. The works touch on broad-brush humor and high-brow postmodernism. Morgan’s recent solo and two-person exhibitions include the Green Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Art Gym, Portland, Oregon; and Portland2016 Biennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Michelle Grabner. Morgan received his Master of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in 2001. He was an early member of Ditch Projects, an artist-run exhibition space in Springfield, Oregon, and is an associate professor at the University of Oregon. Morgan is represented by Fourteen30 Contemporary.

“Donald’s work, as well as his roles as educator and curator, ups the bar for everyone around him,” says Kenneth Fandell, Michael G. and C. Jane Wilson Chair in Arts and the Humanities, Harvey Mudd College. “He so adroitly navigates physicality and craft through intellectual concerns that he is able to convince us of the unequivocal worth and need of both.”

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ABOUT THE FORD FAMILY FOUNDATION VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM

The Visual Arts Program honors the late Hallie Ford, co-founder of The Ford Family Foundation, who left a legacy based on an interest in and a lifelong support of the visual arts. The Hallie Ford Fellowships are the flagship element of the Visual Arts Program. In addition, the program offers grants to visual artists for unanticipated career opportunities; supports artists-in-residence programs in Oregon and out of state; brings curators and critics from outside the region to Oregon for studio visits and community dialogue; supports exhibitions, catalogues and other forms of documentation; and awards grants for small capital projects.  

The Ford Family Foundation was established in 1957 by Kenneth W. and Hallie E. Ford. Its mission is “successful citizens and vital rural communities” in Oregon and Siskiyou County, California. The Foundation is located in Roseburg, Oregon, with a Scholarship office in Eugene. For more information about the Foundation and its Visual Arts Program, visit www.tfff.org. 

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credits

Natalie Ball. Photo: Walters Photography / When I Go Missing, North Star, 2019, Wool, satin, cotton, pine, rope, crystals, canvas, converse shoe, braiding hair, deer rawhide, 81“ x 96”.

Iván Carmona. Photo: Sam Gehrke / Muralla, 2019, Flashe paint on ceramic, 22” x 19” x 6” 

Donald Morgan. Photo: Sam Gehrke / Top Ten Icelandic Sci Fi Anthologies, 2018, Sintra, enamel, 30” x 35” x 35”